Conventionally, image processing apparatuses, e.g., electronic cameras or the like, for recording still images and moving images in a memory card, serving as a recording medium, which has a solid-state memory device have already been available on the market. Electronic cameras comprising a function for performing automatic white balance correction at the time of image sensing are also available.
In these electronic cameras, even in a case where color balance of a sensed image is deteriorated due to the type of a light source used at an image sensing location, the camera automatically specifies the light source color and performs color balance correction. Therefore, an operator of the camera can obtain an image of appropriate colors without concerning about the light source color (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-350232).
According to the automatic white balance correction method adopted by such image sensing apparatuses, e.g., conventional electronic cameras, a portion which is expected to be white is extracted from a sensed image, and color balance of the extracted white portion is adjusted for correcting color balance of the overall image. However, when a white portion is extracted from a sensed image, there is a case that a chromatic color is erroneously detected as white, resulting in a problem of an inappropriate color balance in the corrected image.